


Perfect World

by KyattoShaku



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-07-27 14:10:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20047345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KyattoShaku/pseuds/KyattoShaku
Summary: Kaiba gets everything he ever possibly could want.





	Perfect World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lovejoy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lovejoy/gifts).

“Test successful.” The slightly mechanical sounding words intoned, as Kaiba opened his eyes and sat up, removing the small headset.

“Of course it was,” Kaiba said out loud, even if the computer program for monitoring the test wasn’t one of the ones programmed to be able to respond to comments. Predictably it said nothing as he set the headset aside. His VR tech was getting lighter and less cumbersome with every iteration and he hadn’t worried about that, it was the programming that needed testing. Finding ways to increase safety without breaking immersion was difficult and he’d eventually agreed that making it so the user could exit the program any time they wished to was best, even if it meant people could leave right in the middle of a duel. He had insisted on measures in place to discourage people from doing that, that staying and taking a loss carried fewer penalties than quitting, but it was still possible.

There was still a lot of work to do before KaibaCorp would be ready to roll out the latest advances in immersive gaming, but it was a good start.

* * *

It was a perfect moment, he knew before he even called the move that Yuugi would have no way of stopping him, and he didn’t. His Blue-Eyes attacked his Dark Magician, destroying the last of his life points and winning the tournament.

“Good game,” Yuugi said, extending his hand. Kaiba eyed it looking for some insult before he took it to shake.

“It was. The superior player won, as it should be,” Kaiba spoke low, feeling almost giddy. The rest were all flukes, he had finally proven he was the best.

Yuugi held his hand a moment longer than necessary, looking at at him and the oddest expression flickering across his face.

“Maybe a little better than it should be?” Yuugi sounded odd too, like the words were hard to form.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kaiba spit out, and the expression passed and Yuugi was just looking at him in that infuriatingly neutral smug way of his.

“Until next time then, Kaiba.” Yuugi turned leaving Kaiba to push it out of his mind and savor his victory.

* * *

“Hey, wait up.”

Kaiba almost didn’t stop. He didn’t have time for any of Yuugi’s annoying friends, even the ones that considered themselves duelists.

“What do you want, Jounouchi? Revenge for your friend?” He wouldn’t put it past him, some misplaced sense of pride at the loss.

“No I was just thinking, what with you being the top duelist now, what about a friendly duel? Just you and me?” Jounouchi asked. “Loser can buy the winner lunch.”

“I’m not interested in seeing what you would consider lunch for that,” Kaiba said.

“Then maybe you could just buy me lunch.” Jounouchi grinned, infuriatingly confident.

“What if I did?” Kaiba challenged, and had the amusement of seeing Jounouchi momentarily speechless.

“I guess I’d be an idiot to refuse something like that,” Jounouchi finally managed.

“Well I suppose maybe another time then,” Kaiba smirked, starting to turn.

“I.. hey! I’m accepting the offer, you jerk!” Jounouchi huffed.

“My mistake then,” Kaiba said unapologetically, amused at the whole incident.

* * *

Kaiba spared no expense for the wedding. He never intended to do such a thing again and it had to be perfect. There were glittering draconic ice sculptures displayed over every table and the cake itself was a work of art. A nearly life sized Blue-Eyes White Dragon made of cake and sugar and white chocolate reared in splendor at the center of the hall.

Yet when the moment came, Kaiba couldn’t seem to look away from his husband.

* * *

Jounouchi was restless again, making his way from the hotel room and out onto the balcony, the wind ruffling his hair. Kaiba waited for him to come back inside, and then eventually gave up, stepping out to join him. He could just hear the distant sounds of the ocean and smell the tang of salt on the breeze as the sun sank lower.

“It’s a perfect sunset,” Jounouchi finally said, watching the sky grow more and more colorful. His tone was uncharacteristically morose for what should have been a nice observation, and Kaiba frowned.

“What’s wrong with that?” Kaiba looked out at it, so far the honeymoon had been going so well. The weather had cooperated, the beaches were gorgeous, and they’d even managed to avoid sunburn.

“It’s always perfect and you haven’t noticed yet.” Jounouchi sounded strained, it happened sometimes. Like he was forcing each word out and something about the tone always set Kaiba on edge.

“It’s a sunset, what’s there to notice?” Kaiba said, harsher than he intended, but Jounouchi didn’t flinch.

“It’s perfect, just like this. Just like everything else. Everything’s been perfect ever since… ever since you tested that...” Jounouchi trailed off, but Kaiba already felt cold at the words. Everything had been going his way, ever since the VR test.

“It has,” Kaiba said slowly, wanting to reject the obvious conclusion but unable to. Nothing had gone wrong since that test, no slow cars in his way, no employee screw ups, no bad weather, and he had everything he ever wanted. And what better trap in a world where you had to want to leave in order to leave.

When he looked back to Jounouchi the odd behavior had passed, like it always did. He looked relaxed, happy, reaching out to stroke over Kaiba’s arm

“Ready to go give the hotel bed a little more action?” Jounouchi grinned, but Kaiba jerked back like he’d been stung.

“I have to go,” Kaiba said, with heart crushing finality and then the world went black.

* * *

  
Jounouchi stared down at the sleeping form. After all this time he was halfway convinced if he looked away the headset would be back on and he’d be unconscious instead of merely sleeping. Kaiba needed the sleep, he looked horrible. There was was only so much the doctors had been able to do to support his body while his mind was trapped in the VR world and Kaiba was thin enough without having to rely on tube feeding.

Jounouchi felt almost as tired, the sabotage had been very through. Kaiba couldn’t be disconnected without potentially destroying his mind, he had to make the choice to leave. They couldn’t just go in and tell him he was trapped, interfering too much with the program might have crashed it, and he didn’t know what that would have done to anyone still inside. The only way they’d been able to figure out was to slip in if they were already supposed to be there and try and bend the AI to get a message across. Mokuba had wanted to help, but he was needed to run KaibaCorp and cover up Kaiba’s absence. The Pharaoh had helped when he could, but the programming for the duels themselves was more rigid and didn’t want to be changed. Jounouchi had experienced that himself, Kaiba didn’t seem to like a lot of chit-chat from his opponents, he just wanted to win.

Finally Kaiba stirred, still looking too pale and with dark circles under his eyes, but it was a far cry from the utter deathly stillness of someone in VR and Jounouchi sat up a little, watching him.

“Waking up?” Jounouchi asked, only then realizing the awkwardness of the situation. He’d had time to slowly come to terms with what Kaiba wanted, but for Kaiba it had been real.

The question got an annoyed groan and a half-lidded glare before Kaiba tried to speak.

“Why are you here?” It was raspy and painful sounding, and Jounouchi reached automatically for the half-melted ice water beside the bed, turning the straw and holding it to Kaiba’s lips. He looked like he wanted to refuse before shakily reaching up to take the cup himself to drink from it.

“Because you’ve been trapped in VR for the past few weeks,” Jounouchi explained.

“So it wasn’t real,” Kaiba said harshly, and Jounouchi suspected it wasn’t entirely from his voice being unused for so long this time.

“No.” Jounouchi said, sounding more abrupt than he intended. “Well, most of it wasn’t real.”

That got him a confused glare, but before he could worry he was making a mistake he leaned over the bed, pressing his lips to chapped ones.

When he pulled back, Kaiba looked stunned.

“I was there, for some of it at least. Sometimes it was just the AI, yeah, but...” Jounouchi trailed off with a shrug, not sure what to expect. It may have been Kaiba, but Kaiba in a perfect world wasn’t the same as reality.

Kaiba stared at him with an unreadable expression, but before Jounouchi was too tempted to say something and break the silence he felt a hesitant touch. Kaiba’s hands were still trembling, but he pressed one against Jounouchi’s and after a moment of surprise Jounouchi took it, lacing their fingers together. They stayed like that in companionable silence for a long time, before Kaiba finally slipped back into exhausted slumber.


End file.
